Battle of the Consoles: Xbox vs PlayStation

Microsoft will go head to head with Sony later this fall. Ian Sherr reports what’s at stake for consoles. Photo: Getty Images.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... Microsoft going head to head with Sony in game console in ... Loveman more on Digits good afternoon and welcome I'm Simon Constable Ian Sherr up ... all the Wall Street John joins us now from sentences go ... and the end of the big announcement is November twenty two ... the Xbox One of being on vinyl right ... what can be it's can actually be arriving in retail stores that day so I people be able to pick up their own copy I've presumably ... when it when it wants its ... and the big thing thing thing and what this means that companies ... are going head to head ... meanwhile the industry itself is having a consistently hard time and that's something ... we've talked about right back to the beginning of Digits up a few years ago ... yet it's it's Deathly been a hard time a new guy ... was interesting here is that you've done at Sony and Micra soft basically watching within a couple weeks of each other ... on the string of councils that are the first in eight years or so ... and you know in the meantime in the last steel few years especially ... on a game console sales at its sales of console games that top precipitously ... on a hippy dippy see for example said that they fell ten percent last year ... I if you look at NPD which distracts us retail sales of games and game console so ... I'm still so there's been dropping this month after month after month for well over a year now ... and there's a lot of challenges going on had a lot of people say this is a cyclical nature of the industry that ... when the whole concert to getting older people I fewer games and whatnot but ... this time around there a lot of analysts and also including the Debussy to say ... what might bump up a little bit but not as much as it might have in the past and I'm that leads us to the question how much growth is left of center state ... aid although still continue selling games and whatnot but can it in a row the number of people playing and become more ... of what it is today I'm in an effort to fuel the promise is what is the last three games out there you can go and get them full freight might not be as fancy as say ... one of the latest Call of Duty is ... about some added costs to sixty bucks an amped up the console the three day maybe can play the new phone ... then there's also a lot of things like can entertain you ... the swell to say you know what to watching TV which man flicks of all let's all the stuff ... and then the stuff you can just do something the web right so is this just like is it too much down that that can entertain people in ... but there's a lot of ... Credit theories about why this is going on ... in in in in a lot of people would point to smartphones and tablets and ... stuff like Facebook battery that are hurting the industry and that this is probably a part of that ... aam but a lot of it also is that the the industry itself this bifurcated you have people playing on mobile devices we also have ... a lot of people returning to playing games for PCs ... which um you know that the free to play stuff that happened that with every summit with Facebook ... and even more recently in Asia ... has just kind of become really big on PCs to back games like that go to ... I which is kind of a battle arena tight game ... you have ... another game called was the tanks both of which are free and the way to make money is by selling ... on the next day you know guns and whatnot in Tennessee premium content if you well ... and those are doing really well and that their siphoning off some of the people away from consul is ... it so there's that there's a lot of things going on here that that are hard to cut a point to ... what it comes down to is that the console industry ... you know it's strong but it's not that the growth is the question ... is is not in some ways in this isn't a threat and business while the like the movie business you have a good movie you gonna make a ton of money have some fixed costs and you can just get people in the Fed as pens and silent ... and people that thought okay well maybe add Medved VCR a man DVD summoned online streaming what would generally ... that the ... movie business but ... in the end if you have a great movie people will pay to go see that in the face out ... isn't the case that if they just come out with something that's a fantastic gang but you have a half people will have a habit Mabel quiet and they will play ... but as proof of that over the place if you will get back a low last year below four which was the first new one in several years ... he did really well ... I he I think you cross the billion dollar mark rather quickly I called duty especially ... by every year it crosses the billion dollar market sales earlier and earlier ... after a slide show ... so these Danny which I am an industry that ... it has a number of franchises that are ... among the best selling things in the world ... I it's a very successful business the prom is that those things ... are what are driving the business and the lesser ... our hearts are hurting more and more ... and it is just a question of how much can you put the stuff out how often can you played out ... and how many more people can you pull into it ... I if you will get for example comic book movie scene on the movie industry ... they're doing really well they're driving a lot of that three D is driving a lot of that in a revenue bond someone not ... any gains they don't have as much to kind of work with the three D thing didn't really work and video games ... and we've been playing comic but videogames for years ... so I guess new games is a game called watchdog's for example which is coming out ... I waited this year which for a new title for movie soft ... it's getting a lot of attention will that be enough to really ... join in this people say ... will say ... yes we well we shall say soon enough by Kiran much in show up on the will Street gentle we appreciate time so ... my pleasure